The invention relates generally to checkweighers in power-driven conveyor systems.
Many production operations use weight measurements to control quality. For example, a beverage-packing facility producing cases of cans may weigh the packed cases to ensure that all the cans are full. Underweight cases may indicate leaking or incompletely filled cans. Checkweighers that include a weigh scale are commonly used to weigh cases, packages, or other conveyed objects. The checkweighers, which typically include a short conveyor belt, form part of a conveyor line. Many checkweighers require that the objects to be weighed halt while the scale reads the weight. And checkweighers that can measure the weight of a moving object require that only one object at a time be conveyed over the scale. So the objects to be weighed must be separated by large gaps, which slows throughput.